Saturday, January 10, 2009

An Economic Bitchslap

For those of you who haven't heard about what's going on with Circuit City, let me explain it so I don't have to type it OVER 9000 times to explain it to all of my friends:

This is how retail works: A vendor, let's say Sony, gives Circuit City $1 million worth of product. Then they say 'okay, if you can sell it all in 30 days and pay us back, we'll only charge you 2% interest. If you can pay us back in 60 days, we'll only charge you 4% interest', e.t.c. It's basically like financing on a credit card. This is essential to a company's ability to afford selling products.

Because of the economy and because Circuit City is filed under Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection, vendors have pulled tight reigns on their financing and are now demanding money up-front rather than giving out financing. So now, Sony would be more like 'Here's $1 million worth of product. Now give us $1 million. Right now.' This is because they do not trust Circuit City (and other retailers too, we're not the only ones suffering from this) to pay it back.

Because of this, Circuit has had a decrease in product to sell, which means less money, and the cycle goes on and on. Because of this, the company has only one option left: to be bought out.

Now, we have two VERY good people looking to buy us out, one guy in particular is a huge electronic retail owner in South America and is already being called Circuit City's 'White Knight'. Both of these potential buyers have also expressed interest in keeping Circuit the way it is rather than turning it into a different kind of company.

However, there is a time constraint. Because of the rulings that went along with our bankruptcy filing, we have until January 13th to be bought, otherwise we go on auction to the public, which means anybody off the street could technically buy Circuit City at that point, not just these two potential buyers. If nobody buys the company by January 16th, the company will have no choice but to liquidate the entire company.

That means, in less than a week from now, Leigh and I will, most likely, be out of a job. You probably won't see or hear much from us from this point on, as we're now scrambling to find jobs in preparation for the worst. Now, it's not like we'll be booted out of a job on the 16th; we'll be there probably for a month to a month and a half afterwords working the liquidation, however there is something rather saddening that we have thought of.

If Circuit City goes down, then we will NOT be able to live in New York any longer; we simply won't be able to afford it. When I go down to North Carolina for my birthday, we will be looking at places to live down there. This is mostly going to affect me; Leigh's family has expressed interest in her staying up here in New York with them, which means we will most likely also be splitting up. Possibly not as a couple, but physically until she comes to a decision as to whether she wants to move down with me or not.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the harsh reality of the world we live in today. It angers me that people like my girlfriend and I, who work hard and honestly, are going to be the ones without jobs and possibly separated because we simply can't afford to be together. Every piece of what is going on right now breaks my heart, and I'm having a rather difficult time keeping my chin up right now.

So, I want to apologize for any future absences of both Leigh and I in the future, as we'll be too busy looking for jobs (we also cannot afford to attend AnimeNEXT this year now, sorry guys...). I also appreciate everyone's understanding that most likely, for the next few months, Leigh and I will be two very different people. We have to, in essence, shed all of the good things about us and become rather vicious about finding a way to make money for our survival.

Thank you guys again for your understanding.